Quick baby quilts

Hey Everyone,

Welcome back! I'm so glad you're here :)

Today's post will  be about a few pictures of the "whole cloth" baby quilts  my friend asked me to make.

She gave me 2 weeks  notice, we went to pick out the fabrics together. She picked 2 adorable ones, and a very soft flannel for the back.

I was kind of considering if  I should do a regular quilt, or just quilt the top and the batting together and sew the back on pillowcase style with no binding. I decided it  would be better for the flannel to be quilted with the other 2 layers so that's what I did. Her friend is expecting twins and was going to have the baby shower on the Saturday after Sandy. She gave me the fabrics on Thursday before the hurricane came so I hurried to baste,quilt, and to sew the binding on  thinking I can do the hand stitching while we lose power. And that's what I did. I finished both bindings while the power was out, only for 2 days thank goodness. She called me and said the baby shower was postponed because of the storm so I put the quilts aside. The only thing I had left to do was to weave the thread ends.

She called me last Thursday again and said the  shower will be held on Saturday so She wants to swing by to pick up the quilts. I told her to hold her horses because I still had a few hours of work that I needed to do to  have them finished. I worked  on them  on Thursday night and finished them both.

Friday morning we took the photos, Fiance helped because there was not so much light. So he was holding up the quilts while I took the photos. They're not the best quality, but they'll do for now. My only regret is that I was kind of rushing and forgot to take close-ups. Ooopsie! :)

Here they are!

Front I:

Back I:

Front II:

Back II:

I didn't have a chance to wash them and I'm hoping the new owner will  send me pictures of the quilts washed and wrapped around the new babies!

That's all for Today, next time I'll  post  about a block I was testing for someone, and my fabric choices for the Easy Street Quilt Along hosted by Bonnie K. Hunter. Also I'm still working on sashing my Craftsy BOM blocks into 2 baby quilts. Pictures are coming up! :)

'Til we blog again! :)

Hurricane Sandy aftermath and relief blocks

Hi Everybody,

I'm glad to be back! Literally! After Hurricane Sandy storming through and losing power for a few days it's nice to be able to post again.

When they started to forecast the storm I was busy getting ready to have some handwork to do while we lose power which only lasted for 2 days thank  goodness! We had very strong winds blowing through, but not many trees or power lines down. The only annoyance I had was not being able to reach anybody via cell phone since the nearby tower was also down.
We had to go over to our friend's house to bring our frozen food to put in their freezer which they were using with a generator. They live a few miles away and on the way there I was taking some pictures to show the destruction.

Tree fallen on the power line

Mostly pine trees suffered the damage

At this property every single pine tree was rooted  up and fell across the drive way on both sides.

Another one down...

I also shot some videos  which we will upload to Youtube, I'll link them in later.
When we got the power back and we saw the news for the first time in 3 days it was devastating. We were listening to the radio all day while we didn't have power, but when you just hear about it you can't imagine what people are going through. I have friends in NJ close to the beach who I haven't heard from for a week, just got a phone call this morning that they're OK. It's really sad to see all those neighborhoods gone, people who were left with nothing.
One of our fellow quilters Jennifer from Knotted-Thread has family and friends in the area that was hit by the hurricane. She's reaching out for help to make quilts to be donated to people who need them.
I made these blocks and will mail them tomorrow so She can get working.

Black and gray blocks:

Multicolored blocks:

She'd set up a Flickr group for people who want to help. Please consider signing up, She's still collecting blocks for the multicolored ones. She'd like to get them by November 25 to be able to deliver the quilts by Christmas. The blocks are easy to make, only Half Square Triangles. Thank you for your support!

'Til we blog again! :)

Christmas QAYG progress

Hello, and Welcome back!

I have a few pictures to share with you guys. Friday night and Saturday afternoon I had time to  sit down and start the Free Motion Quilting I wanted to do on some of the Christmas blocks. I even got out my walking foot and put it to use in a real quilt for the first time. If you're following my blog you read my post about my problems with the walking foot. Thankfully I don't have that problem anymore! It included to order a brand new walking foot through Amazon.com.  When that arrived I could compare it to my original Singer walking foot and noticed that the plate itself that pushes the fabric down was missing from mine. No wonder why I couldn't get the stitches working. DUH! So now I have and extra walking foot :)

I got all excited and decided to quilt one of my blocks on my Christmas Quilt with straight lines. I can't remember if I mentioned it at the FAL blog post, but this quilt is partially made with block swap blocks from back in 2007. It mostly includes my blocks, but there were a few that were close to the size I needed (and we agreed on) so I decided to use those. Someone made a very pretty star block in which the fabrics I love and left the background just blank white which called for the straight line quilting I longed for. I think it looks really pretty now! I had to put a frame around the blocks to be able to size them up to be uniform.

Let me just say it while I was working on this block I was in loooooove! With my walking foot of course! Now I can't wait to make a quilt with just straight line quilting.

The next block I pieced myself because I love pine trees. A lot! :)

On this block I was going to practice the swirls I really like from Angela Walters' Craftsy class. Well, I still need a LOT of practice for sure! It's a lot more easier to just draw it on paper.

Close-up of the background quilting:

And the final one that was also pieced by  me:

With this block I was practicing pebbles for the first time. Not-so-perfect, but I can live with it :) It's kind of stiff right now, but I'm hoping it will get softer once the quilt is together and I can wash the whole thing. I love this look because it reminds me of snow falling. If you know me well, you know how much I LOVE snow! :)

Here's a close-up of the pebble quilting:

That's all I have for today, I'm hoping my Amy  Butler Weekender bag pattern will arrive shortly so I could start that project too! Like I need more projects to work on, LOL!

'Til we blog again! :)

The Long Weekend project

Hello Dear Readers,

I'm glad you joined me again!

Today's post will be a short one, I just wanted to put the word out that I'll be doing The Long Weekend sew along hosted by Heidi and Lori H..

We'll be making Amy Butler's Weekender Bag. I bought all my supplies last night at Jo-Ann, they had the home decorating fabrics for 50% off. Actually all the supplies were on sale except the cording, which was a pretty good  deal a 100ft for about $5. I got extra from everything and managed to spend  heaps amount of money. I was joking with someone that this will be the most expansive bag I've yet to have :) If you feel like it, come and join the fun! The kick off post was on the 15th with the schedule of the guest bloggers and sponsors so it's not too late. I joined this sew along because I want to see if I could rise up to the challenge. I'm not a bag maker, only made a few Easter baskets and a tote bag so far, so it will be a big bite for sure! :) If it turns out OK, I'll be making another one for someone.

These are the fabrics I'm going to use:

The bottom fabric I'll use for the exterior and the blue one will be the lining.

In the mean time I started to work on quilting the Christmas blocks and  have cut up some scraps from my scrap drawer. Pictures will be posted later.

Now I have to run to make lunch.

'Til we blog again! :)

4th quarter Finish Along goals

Hello everybody,

It's so nice to be here again! I can't believe how fast time flies and it's time to make new goals again.

Here are the projects I'm working on and wishing to finish this quarter:

Christmas Quilt-as-you-go quilt (have no idea what size, still have to decide. I have lots of extra blocks from a Christmas star block swap)

Chocolate pink monkey quilt (need to check if I have enough fabrics left to add another column to make it a little wider, then piece backing and go from there)

Plain squares (which I may just cut up and use it as backing, but not sure. Started out  as a duvet cover about 10 years ago...)

Double wedding ring top (which I'd like to make as a cat mat and practice free motion quilting on it)

Tote bag (needs handles and lining)

Craftsy Block Of the Month quilt (I'm planning to make 2 baby quilts out of the 20 blocks)

And the bonus project I haven't even started yet so it  will not count are 4-5 shopping bags and another tote bag (from the pretty flower fabric)

I'm realistic and if I don't finish everything it won't be a big deal.
I'm linking up to Rhonda @Quilter in The Gap for the 4th Quarter FAL linky party.
That's all for today, now I'll have to get working! :)

'Til we blog again! :)

Friendship Circle block

Hi dear Readers,

Welcome back, I'm glad you're here again!

This time I'm presenting my newest Craftsy BOM creation, the Friendship Circle block.

I had a few glitches with this block in the making and was kind of grumpy last night. So the pattern that you're supposed to print out from the website (course materials) is sized wrong. Instead of 12.5 inches the block I made yesterday measures 13 inches. I was so proud when I assembled it and all the points came together as they're supposed to. After oooohing and aaaaahing over it I measured it and it was a 1/2 inch too big. I went to the talk section on  the Craftsy website just to find out that yes, the block was put on the site in the wrong size (even though the test square measured exactly 1 inch when I printed the pattern) and you're supposed to shrink it down to 96%. That  broke my heart right  there. After a little debate on Twitter I figured I'll selvage the block I can't use and will make a pillow case out of it that goes with one of the quilts. Did I mention I'm planning to make 2 quilts out of the 20 blocks? Yes. I think it would be a huge quilt for a baby so I decided to divide the blocks and make 10 blocks in each quilt and that's plenty for a baby.

So after the big  disappointment  yesterday I printed out  the pattern and reduced it down to 96% on the copy machine. I also had cut out the fabric patches that were needed for making the new block. Needless to say I messed up the cutting again and cut the white background fabric patches flipped. I tried to make it work when I was sewing everything together this afternoon, but it didn't work so I decided to use the wrong side of the fabric. And so I did. It's not noticeable at all so I'm not going to sweat over it.

I still have some new things I learned from this block:

• before you start making a paper pieced pattern make sure you measure the print to be the right size
• glue in the seam allowance only, otherwise the glue will turn yellow when you press the piece (ask me how I know! :)
• I really like the new method I was using by trimming the already sewn fabric to include a 1/4 inch seam allowance into which I'll pin the next fabric (is that clear enough to  understand? I need English lessons. Badly!)
• when your iron starts to beep because you think it overheated for being  on stand-by too long, just turn it off and give it some time. It'll work again. At least mine did :)
• when your sewing machine starts skipping stitches on the very last seam you're sewing un-thread the machine and re-thread it again, it solved my problem
• helper cats will help no matter what!

Here he is helping to hold the pin cushion:

Helping to paper piece:

The #quiltphoto theme of the day is: Blue. Here's my picture:

That's all for now, I'm gonna have to think what to work on next, might just assemble the 2 quilts and finish them, I haven't decided yet. Note to self: still have to take photos for the 4th quarter FAL.

Thanks for stopping by!

'Til we blog again! :)

Circle of geese block DONE!

Hi again,

I'm glad You're back! If it's your first time here, welcome!

It's the last month in the Craftsy BOM block making progress and to celebrate that we're doing paper piecing.

I like paper piecing for the precision, but I don't use it very often, for that reason I was pretty excited about these blocks. Not even mentioning that the Circle of Geese block was on my to-do list.

My experience this time was:

• Never used glue before for paper piecing, but I found that it holds the fabric in place on the  edges while sewing the sub-blocks together
• I realized that in my previous paper pieced projects I didn't set the stitch length short enough
• I learned that piercing the paper in advance is a VERY tedious process
• I remembered to cover my ironing surface in order to not to have printer ink on it while pressing the pieces (ink side down)
• When I un-thread my machine I have to un-thread the take-up lever, otherwise I'll have to take my sewing machine apart to be able to get rid  off the wound up thread (YEAH, ask me how I know!)
• I only had to rip once!

All in all, I loved the process of making this block, even though when I started to perforate the papers I thought I'll never get this done, it'll take FOREVER! I'm pretty pleased the way it came out with the points matching. I can say it's my most precise block in my paper piecing career.

For tomorrow I'm gonna be working on the  Friendship Circle block. I have the paper foundation already perforated so it should be easy-peasy :)

I wrote a blog  post yesterday from my phone and saved it, just to figure out later that I can't edit it from my computer, bummer! Rhonda @Quilter in The Gap is  hosting a photo-a-day  for 30 days which is really fun, come and join us! There's a button on the right sidebar (quiet  a big one) so you can see the themes for the days. It only started yesterday, so it's never too late to catch up!

My photo of the day was:

Super small stitches while paper piecing

I'll also have to write a blog post  for the 4th quarter finish along. You can link up your UFO-s/VIP-s by clicking here. Hope to see you there!

'Til we blog again! :)